The average amount of money that Americans want in order to accept a new job has reached a record high of nearly $80,000, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s July Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) Labor Market Survey reported.

The average "reservation wage" (the lowest wage that survey respondents would accept) and the average expected salary both increased to record highs. The average reservation wage rose to $78,645 from $72,873 in July 2022. The average expected annual salary of job offers in the next four months increased to $67,416 from $60,310 in July 2022.

The New York Fed’s July 2023 survey found that the proportion of individuals who reported searching for a job in the past four weeks declined to 19.4 percent from 24.7 percent in July 2022. The expected likelihood of respondents moving to a new employer declined slightly to 10.6 percent from 11 percent a year earlier, while the average expected likelihood of becoming unemployed increased to 3.9 percent from 2.3 in the previous July, the highest reading since March 2020. The increase in the latter was most pronounced for respondents younger than age 45 and those with annual household incomes of less than $60,000.

The average full-time job offer is $69,475, 14 percent more than last year, CNBC reported.

The average expected likelihood of working beyond age 62 declined to 47.7 percent from 48.8 percent in July 2022, the lowest reading since the start of the New York Fed’s series in March 2014. The series has largely been on a downward trend since November 2020, the survey noted. It also found that the average expected likelihood of working beyond age 67 rose slightly to 32 percent from 31.3 percent in July 2022.